Building
of Museum was the residence and office of "Ahmad Qavam"
until 1951. Afterwards, the Egyptian Embassy in Tehran took over the
building and finally handed it over to

the Iranian Commercial Bank.

From 1976,a group of Iranian and Austrian architects refurbished the
building and converted it into a museum which was opened on 1989.The
decorations of the building include brickworks of the exterior facade
and interior plaster cutouts, mirror works and inlaying.

As one of the Iranian famous museums, Abguineh museum comprises
several halls and workshops and a library. Art works and handicrafts
exhibited in this museum include three collections of porcelains,
glassworks and crystals.

Porcelains
The magnificent collection of porcelains exhibits a thorough history
of ceramics and porcelains made in Iran from the dawn of history until
today. It also provides a bulk of information about the evolution of
porcelain and its production technique. Major centers of porcelain
making in Iran including Kashan, Ray, Qazvin, Gorgan and Neishabour
are also introduced.

Visiting this museum, you learn about simple and colorful glazed
porcelains and the art of decorating them with calligraphic designs,
paintings of plants and animals and geometrical designs over and under
the layer of the glaze.

Some of these porcelains enjoy paintings on the basis of proverbs and
old mythical and folk tales.

Glass
works

Glass works that are exhibited in this museum start from the ones made
in the first and second millennia BC and extend up to modern ones. In
this section the glass works production technique including the sand
molds, cutting and pressing equipment are introduced. The painting
method on the glass is also exhibited.

Crystals

On the ground floor hall of the museum, crystal and flint glass
samples of 18th and 19th centuries are exhibited. All these samples
are mostly cut and made in Europe.

Specialized
Library On the northwestern courtyard of the museum, the newly
constructed building of the library is visible. This specialized
library contains almost 4,000 books on archeology and the history of
art. A hall is also allocated to exhibit the glassworks and porcelains
made by contemporary artists and craftsmen. Workshops to teach
production of glassworks, crystal cuttings, porcelains and their
painting are also provided.